Often, a coating is desired for a component having limited access and/or a smooth surface. Forming full coatings and/or evenly distributed coatings over these components can be difficult and inefficient. Often, components having surfaces with limited access, such as honeycomb shaped components, require a diffusion coating.
During diffusion coating, the coating material travels along the portions having limited access to form the coating. For example, the coating material travel through each of the hexagons in the honeycomb shaped component to form the coating over a surface within each hexagon. However, when the surface of the component to be coated includes a smooth surface, the coating material may slide over portions of the surface without adhering, leading to incomplete coatings, or uncoated portions of the surface.
One attempt to improve coatings includes multiple applications of the coating material. This can often lead to coatings having non-uniform thickness, and increases the cost of the coating process. Another attempt to improve coatings includes adding additional metal powder to increase the thickness of the coating material. The thicker gel increases the cost of the coating material, and therefore the cost of the coating process.
A coating material that does not suffer from one or more of the above drawbacks is desirable in the art.